BEIJING– China welcomes all types of enterprises, including foreign ones, to participate in mixed-ownership reform of state-owned enterprises (SOEs), the state assets regulator said here Saturday. “We’ll be delighted to see foreign enterprises taking part in the mixed-ownership reform,” Xiao Yaqing, head of State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission, said at a press conference on the sidelines of the annual legislative session. China is firm in opening up and pushing forward the mixed-ownership reform, Xiao said. The reform diversifies the… (Continua a leggere)

In brief As China moves closer to building a working quantum communications network, the possibility of a quantum internet becomes more and more real. But what does having a quantum internet mean? The next level The word “quantum” sounds so advanced and complex that people tend to get hyped up about anything attached to it. While not every quantum breakthrough elicits a positive response, in the case of a so-called quantum internet, people have a reason to be excited. In the… (Continua a leggere)

ExxonMobil and Chevron are some of the most influential climate lobbyists. Yikes. A report from InfluenceMap, a U.K. think tank, assessed the 50 biggest companies influencing climate policy and found that 35actively fight against climate-friendly legislation. The below chart maps out the companies according to how strongly they support policies to combat climate change (the x-axis) and how politically engaged they are when doing so (the y-axis). Researchers selected the companies from a list of the 250 largest, non-state-owned companies, ignoring the… (Continua a leggere)

Hitachi uses state-of-the art IoT and artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to reduce workloads on production lines while increasing productivity and quality. After analyzing manufacturing performance data based on 16 months of testing, Hitachi has developed an Image Analysis System that quantifies the standard behavior model of worker, the status of equipment and materials, and anomalies such as deviations in worker activities or line equipment that may result in failures. Daicel Corporation has taken various initiatives of production innovation, including visualizing… (Continua a leggere)

La Riflessione

You’ve probably heard of foreign businesspeople who have had great success in Japan, such as Carlos Ghosn, the former chairman of Nissan Motor. But you might not know about an American investor who has played a key role in advising the Japanese government on reforming the corporate sector. In July 2014, Scott Callon, CEO of Ichigo Asset Management, received a call from Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) and was summoned for a meeting. Callon was filled with anxiety. After all,… (Continua a leggere)